In certain consumable product applications, it is desirable to provide a mixture of two different sprayable substances. Products such as adhesives and paints often require two substances to be mixed together immediately prior to application, with the ratio of the substances to be applied either set at a predetermined level or adjusted to suit particular conditions or applications.
Where the mixture was heretofore preferably applied by spraying, a user without professional spray equipment could not generally spray the mixture onto the article to be coated and was generally required to use a less desired method of application, such as a brush. For example, in epoxy paint systems, a hardener is mixed with a base-paint material immediately prior to application. The mixture cannot be packaged and sold in a single cavity container due to the limited useful life after the components are mixed. A user without equipment for spraying the epoxy paint mixture would be forced to brush the coating onto the surface to be finished, generally achieving a lower quality finish in comparison to a sprayed finish.
In other applications, such as adding additives to paint to accelerate or decelerate drying time or to compensate for atmospheric moisture, it is often necessary to use different proportions of the additive to the base paint mixture. The known methods for preparing and spraying such mixtures requires professional spray equipment with a separate spray gun and a compressor in order to spray on a mixture of the two components with the proportions of the components being hand-mixed by the user.
Dispensing units having multiple chambers for holding different substances in a user selectable ratio for substances such as pastes, liquids or powdered substance are known in the art. However, none of the known prior art multi-chamber dispensing units are suitable for dispensing two sprayable substances under pressure in a user selectable ratio.
The present invention is a result of the observation of the limitations inherent in the known prior art dispensers and efforts to provide an apparatus for dispensing two sprayable substances in a user selectable ratio.